Pay attention if you are Vitamin D deficient

Did you know that a Vitamin D deficiency can make you very ill? Did you know it is a very important vitamin for your health and if your blood test says you are deficient then you must take the correct amount of supplement to stay healthy? It used to be that the daily recommended amount was under 12 months 400iu, 1-70 600iu’s and over 70 800iu’s but given the major deficiencies that are occurring researchers have questioned is this enough? Studies show that we probably need much more Vitamin D supplementation than we are taking.

A report from the Institute of Medicine in USA back in 2010 set different guidelines for Vitamin D and calcium to what people were taking in the past. It actually recommended higher amounts of Vitamin D and less of calcium. The report went on to outline that it was not recommended to take more than 4000iu of Vitamin D daily. This is a huge amount of Vitamin D and I don’t know why anyone would be taking such large doses but I have met people who over-supplement and it is quite common. Similarly people need to know that even though calcium is important for such things as osteoporosis etc when we get older that too much can sometimes not be a good thing. Some people have a predisposition to form calcium stones in parts of their body and too much calcium could lead to these problems.

I can’t emphasise enough that what is good for your sister or mother is most often not good for you and that the days of just walking into a health food store or Woollies and buying a vitamin off the shelf should long be over. It is important to see a trained natural practitioner who can advise you exactly what you should be taking and often I see people taking many bottles of vitamins all to no avail as they are in the wrong combination for that person. The fact that something is supposed to be ‘good for you’ is no reason to go and buy it or take it. An example is someone taking fish oil that has a predisposition to bruising. Definitely one you would need to look at on a personal level with your natural therapist.

Studies have shown that Vitamin D, phosphorus and calcium (which work together to metabolise Vitamin D properly) are linked to such things as lowering our blood pressure, reducing bone fractures, lowering the risk of breast cancer, protecting us against heart disease, Parkinson’s disease and even in some cases Type II diabetes.

Further to this regarding Type II diabetes in a controlled research test 124 adults with type 2 diabetes were tested from 2003 to 2008 and were specifically analysed for their average glycosylated haemoglobin and vitamin D levels. The glycosylated haemoglobin levels are used to measure how well diabetes is being controlled and the study, done in USA once again, was using the recommendation by The American Diabetes Association that patients with diabetes keep these levels below 7%.

It was found that 91% of the people in the study were Vitamin D deficient, and only 8 people had been taking Vitamin D supplements. People with the highest levels of bad diabetes control had the lowest Vitamin D levels. The study supports an earlier one done that Vitamin D may be important in the pancreas and insulin secretion working properly together. The results were presented at a meeting of the Endocrine Society in USA.

Due to studies like this one it has become an important supplement to be added to our diet in higher doses than we would simply get from the sun or by eating eggs and fish. This is why it is going into vitamin fortified food.

Foods that can assist in your supplementation are cod liver oil (one tablespoon daily offers about 1,360iu ), fish such as salmon (about 447iu), mackerel (388iu), tuna (154iu) and cereals and other foods which have been fortified. Unfortunately though we do not always eat the right foods and the right amounts and if we were vigilant with every vitamin and mineral that we needed the capacity to keep up with correct dosages would become a nightmare to monitor for ourselves.

It also needs to be said however that the results of these studies have been varied and also there is a lack of standardisation for Vitamin D blood testing meaning that there is conflict in the medical world regarding if people showing as deficient on their tests are actually deficient.

Another study done recently in Boston USA showed that Vitamin D may reduce the risk of stress fracture in teenage girls. Stress fractures are a common sports related injury and occur when stress on the bone are continuous making it difficult for the bone to heal. The study, published in the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that girls with higher intakes of Vitamin D were 51% less likely to suffer from stress fractures. In USA recommended dosages for Vitamin D have increased for teenagers from 400 to 600ius.

The study continued that while we do produce Vitamin D the levels are so weak often especially in the winter months that we hardly get any at all. It analysed 6712 girls below and during their teenage years and took seven years. It was found that 3.9% suffered from stress fractures and that dairy and calcium did not seem to affect whether they got them or not but Vitamin D did seemed to reduce them. It also went on to speak of dividing Vitamin D (sunshine) into its two biologically inactive precursors – D3 (cholecalciferol) and D2 (ergocalciferol) and to talk about how these are transformed in the liver and kidneys into a ‘non-active’ storage form (25- hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH) D) and a biologically active form that the body controls (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)2D).  This information is important as many parents who have children that suffer from repeated sports injuries are paying heaps in medical bills trying to find answers whilst their problems may be solved by simply supplementing their children’s diet with this vitamin.

It is also recommended by other studies that people who spend hardly any time in the sun, use sunscreen often, have dark skin or are overweight are more likely to be deficient as well as people suffering from any of the illnesses listed above,.

To further support these studies is research done by our own medical profession who still say that it is dangerous to spend too much time in the sun due to the UV rays causing cancer. We must not forget the lack of ozone and our dilemma regarding skin cancers and this vitamin and this is one reason that the supplementation becomes so important.

Vitamin D needs to be taken with calcium to be metabolised properly and a nice safe dosage is 1000iu in a tablet or capsule form that also combines with calcium rather than taking calcium separately. When the two are in a capsule they are mixed in the correct quantities of each. You may need more or less than this amount for other health reasons and that is why you need to ask your natural practitioner exactly what you should be taking…and why. The days of simply eating enough of the ‘right’ foods are long over.

Why? Well add up our sprays on our non organic farms, our microwaves, our mobile phone, computer and WI-Fi rays crossing the globe and immediately there are many reasons over which you have no control of substances that are affecting your body and most importantly your food. Even those of us living on the hillside, eating organic, wearing organic are at risk. Think you are not? Think again. You read this article on a computer, didn’t you? Let’s be sensible. This is the world we live in now. We can be healthy if we do the right thing and for that we need trained natural practitioners to assist us. Reading a bit here and a bit there on Google is not enough as every person is different so go and seek assistance as to what dosages are right for you and become empowered for your health.